A different approach

After 18 days on the Camino, we’ve walked through at least 75 Spanish towns (and a couple of French ones as well). The approach in to every town is different. Some are set up for pilgrims - there are signs about services offered as you get closer to town, maps of the town with pilgrim accommodations listed, and cafes right at the edge of town with pilgrims and their packs sprawled out across the tables. There are even stores and cafes that don’t operate on Spanish time.

{A SMALL DIGRESSION ON PILGRIM V SPANISH TIME}

The schedule for walking the Camino is seemingly optimized to be the exact opposite of how Spain operates. You start early in the morning (many folks start at 6am but the sun doesn’t rise until 8am so that’s when we start). At that hour, basically nothing is open. And by the time you’ve walked six or seven hours, the town you’ve ended up in is a ghost town because everything is closed between 2-5. Then you want to eat an early dinner because you’re starving from having walked 20km, but dinner isn’t really available until 7 or 8. There is a great irony in me and Andy being in a country perfect for night owls like us, only to do the one thing that requires us to be early birds. {END DIGRESSION}.

Due to Spain’s increasing urban migration, many of the towns we visit really only still exist because of the Camino. However, this isn’t an entirely modern phenomenon - we’ve walked through many towns with Albergues that are hundreds of years old and past ruins of pilgrim hospitals from the 14th century. Some of these towns have been pilgrim towns for generations.

Other towns are not so dependent on pilgrims for economic activity. You can also tell by the approach to those towns. You tend to see fewer pilgrims on the road and more local folks taking their dog for a walk or enjoying a bike ride. You end up approaching the town through weird suburbs or potato processing facilities or abandoned office parks.

Yesterday, for example, we entered the city of Burgos by walking around the perimeter of the airport - the only thing flying there was a playful yellow butterfly who kept us company for a few meters. Then we went past a junkyard, a cement factory, and through some scrubland before finally emerging onto a truly lovely path along the river - kilometers of trees and birds and people out enjoying the sunshine.

Walking through a country - over mountains dotted with sheep and fields of grape vines being harvested and gravel mines and cathedrals built centuries ago - is a lovely and special perspective of a place. And the sheer effort that goes into making the walk possible is impressive.

The Camino is extremely well marked.

There are cheap places to stay in almost every town. And if there aren’t enough beds for a night, the town figures out how to house the extra pilgrims. I had a friend who stayed in a library one night - it was opened up by the mayor because all the albergues were full. There are services that will bring your bag from Albergue to Albergue. The post office has special services for pilgrims. Pharmacies and medical establishments cater to folks with foot ailments.

There are benches in the middle of nowhere.

And you’re greeted by charming graffiti (“lose your anger and don’t go to lost property office” was a favorite). Occasionally if there are long stretches between towns, folks sell refreshments and cheer pilgrims on from their cars. And everywhere we go, strangers wish us a “BUEN CAMINO!”